Man who drowned at Marina Park suffered from schizophrenia
The Seattle Times website has posted the following story by Kirstin M. Kraemer of the Tri-City Herald on the man who drowned in the waters of Lake Washington off Marina Park two weeks ago. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
Man who drowned in Lake Washington suffered from schizophrenia
A Des Moines man who died two weeks ago after jumping into Lake Washington near Kirkland was diagnosed last spring with schizophrenia.
Larry Stephenson obviously had stopped taking his medication before the Jan. 26 accident, said family members who firmly believe the 27-year-old did not commit suicide.
“I am quite sure that he had a hallucination or a delusion that told him to go into the water, and that’s what he did,” said his father, also named Larry Stephenson. “It was just a devastating thing for everybody in our family.”
His body was found Friday, 11 days after he was last spotted about 100 feet from the lake shore in Kirkland after witnesses reported hearing his cries for help.
Discovery of the body helped bring some closure to his loved ones, who already had a celebration of life planned. It was held Saturday in Kennewick.
Now his father, a well-known Tri-City attorney, wants to get the message out that people need to be more accepting of mental illnesses.
“To me, the real tragedy of people like my son is so many of them — I’ve had them in my practice — somehow, some way don’t believe that they need to take their medication and they invariably end up with future problems. That is definitely what happened here,” Stephenson said.
Larry Charles Stephenson — he had a different middle name than his father — graduated from Pasco High School in 1999 and Washington State University in 2003. He also had a fellowship for post-graduate studies at Indiana University.
Larry had a wife, Dolly, whom he married last fall in Las Vegas. They had been together for about 1 ½ years, his father said. The couple had traveled abroad, including to the Philippines and Japan, and lived in Des Moines.
His father said Larry was a bright man who enjoyed skiing, playing tennis, soccer and volleyball and helping students. He held different jobs, including putting together computer programs, but his true passion was blackjack.
With an amazing mind for numbers and analysis, he made a decent living as a gambler, his father said.
“My son was a very unique person in so many ways,” Stephenson said. “I was always very proud of my son, even though he was different and it took a while to get to know him.”…
The entire story can be found at The Seattle Times website.
Posted by Admin on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Filed under Headlines · Tagged with Marina Park, Mental Health, Police
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